{"id":657978,"date":"2026-05-22T06:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657978\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T06:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:53:09","slug":"revealing-galactic-history-with-cosmic-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/657978\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealing Galactic History With Cosmic Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

What if we could peer back in time to understand how our galaxy was built\u2014one exploding star at a time?<\/p>\n

When massive stars reach the end of their lives, they don\u2019t go quietly. They explode in spectacular fashion, forging heavy elements and hurling them across space. Some of these particles, known as cosmic rays, eventually reach detectors built by humans. By studying which elements arrive and in what amounts, scientists hope to piece together the story of our galaxy\u2019s chemical evolution.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a problem: As these cosmic rays race through space, they smash into hydrogen atoms and break apart. These reactions, called \u201cproton spallation,\u201d turn heavier elements like iron into lighter ones like sodium or chromium. Without knowing exactly how often these \u201cbreak-ups\u201d happen, it\u2019s hard to translate what detectors see into a true picture of what\u2019s out there. But if scientists could accurately reverse-engineer the process, determining how much of one element came from another, they would better understand the galaxy\u2019s true chemical makeup.<\/p>\n

Now, Priyarshini Ghosh, a nuclear physicist at UMBC\u2019s Center for Space Sciences and Technology<\/a>, is performing a first-of-its-kind experiment, hoping to fill some of this knowledge gap.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"huge,The research team will run a novel experiment on the S800 Spectrograph at the Facility for Rare Ion Beams at Michigan State University. They expect the results to increase understanding of the chemical makeup of the Milky Way galaxy. (Courtesy of FRIB) <\/p>\n

In early June, Ghosh and her collaborators led the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University to study, for the first time ever, how chromium-52 breaks apart when it interacts with hydrogen. Chromium-52 is of particular interest because it can shed light on processes happening in our galaxy, and yet it has never been measured before. Using a high-energy beam of this stable form of chromium, the team will record \u201cproton spallation cross sections\u201d\u2014measures of the likelihood of violent interactions between protons and heavy ions. The experiment essentially recreates inside a Michigan laboratory what\u2019s happening to cosmic rays in space, Ghosh says.<\/p>\n

\u201cNuclear data acts as a translator from the data collected by missions like Voyager<\/a>, converting it into a meaningful understanding of our galaxy,\u201d Ghosh explains.<\/p>\n

Mimicking cosmic rays<\/p>\n

Current models don\u2019t quite match what telescopes and spacecraft actually observe, especially for elements like chromium, titanium, and vanadium. The differences have puzzled researchers for years. These questions linger because the right kind of experimental data has been extremely laborious and expensive to obtain\u2014until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cA sample of chromium-52 the size of a chocolate square can cost around $150,000,\u201d Ghosh notes. So instead of using a large piece of chromium-52, FRIB\u2019s chemists will collide a beam of less-expensive nickel-58 with a carbon target, producing a pure chromium beam\u2014the first time this has ever been achieved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PriyashiniPriyarshini Ghosh operates a scanning electron microscope at Kansas State University, where she completed her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering. (Courtesy of Kansas State University)<\/p>\n

The team will run the experiment for about 43 hours, collecting data on 50 to 60 different fragments produced as the chromium beam collides with various detectors and breaks apart. Then comes the long work of analysis. The results are expected to sharpen astrophysical models and bring us closer to understanding how elements are created and spread throughout the Milky Way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes this project exciting is that FRIB lets us reproduce, in a controlled way, a process that naturally happens in the universe: cosmic rays traveling from a dying star through the galaxy,\u201d says Jorge Pereira, FRIB\u2019s magnetic spectrometer operation group leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cArm-wrestling with nature\u201d<\/p>\n

This chromium experiment is the first in a program that Ghosh is developing at UMBC dedicated to building a comprehensive proton-spallation cross-section database. Proton-based reactions\u2014like the ones cosmic rays experience with hydrogen\u2014have received little attention, even though they\u2019re crucial for interpreting data from space.<\/p>\n

By building a reliable database of these proton cross sections, the team is laying the groundwork that could transform how we read the cosmos. The results will directly support the upcoming TIGERISS mission, set to fly to the International Space Station in 2027. TIGERISS will be the first instrument to measure elements from boron all the way to lead with remarkable precision\u2014and Ghosh\u2019s nuclear data will help scientists make sense of what it sees.<\/p>\n

For Ghosh, the thrill lies in the experimental challenge itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a feat of nuclear engineering,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re using detectors to expose the physics in very specific ways\u2014arm-wrestling with nature to get the answers we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tags: CSST<\/a>, Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What if we could peer back in time to understand how our galaxy was built\u2014one exploding star at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[199,79],"class_list":["post-657978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-physics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}